04/18/2023
Isn't she shovely? Does your shovel matter to you?
I broke my $15 Home Depot shovel (not offroad related) and it got me thinking, it would suck for this to happen in the middle of nowhere trying to dig myself out of a situation. I ended up doing some shovel searching to find the ideal shovel for a variety of conditions.
Surveyed some forums and I got a 50/50 response of either enthusiast shovelists who figured they'd get something that they perceive will perform and last well in various remote conditions vs purist shovelists who have been using the same $15 shovel for the past century, passed down by their great great granddad, who then proceeded to crap on the enthusiast shovelists saying they don't know how to use a shovel, are going to pop their tire with those krazy beaver shovels, break the teeth on the first use, etc.
I decided to experiment with both options for the foreseeable future. I bought another $15 shovel, and I wasn't able to justify buying the shovel just yet, so I chose the initial Seymour option which was apparently the inspiration and design used by the KB. I think they are contracted by Seymour as well? From what I understand, the KB version improved on build quality and other aspects including aesthetics. I'd love to have that zombie killing machine hanging off the side of my rack when sh*t hits the fan but we'll see how the spikey Seymour will do with a little black spray paint and madness in my soul. Mainly just care about how well it digs. The shovel purists claim it's going to instantly break into pieces at first thrust so let's see how it goes 🤞